Experimenter

In 1961, famed social psychologist Stanley Milgram conducted a series of radical behavior experiments that tested ordinary humans willingness to obey authority.
Yale University, 1961. Stanley Milgram designs a psychology experiment in which people think they’re delivering electric shocks to an affable stranger strapped into a chair in another room. Subjects are told it’s about memory, but the experiment is really about conformity, conscience and free will. Milgram is trying to come to terms with the Holocaust and to test people’s tendency to comply with authority. Milgram’s experiment has yielded disturbing results: 65 per cent of Milgram’s subjects deliver shocks that may be fatal, obeying polite commands from a lab-coated authority figure.

Milgram is working at Harvard when his obedience findings are reported in The New York Times. He is accused of being deceptive, a manipulative monster. The film EXPERIMENTER invites us inside Milgram's whirring mind, beginning with his obedience research and wending a path to uncover how inner obsessions and the times in which he lived shaped a parade of human behavior inquiries.

Credits: director & writer: Michael Almereyda - Cast: Peter Sarsgaard, Winona Ryder, John Leguizamo, Kellan Lutz, Anthony Edwards, Edoardo Ballerini, John Palladino - Cinematography: Ryan Samul - Editor: Kathryn J. Shubert - Sound design: Bryan Senti - Producer: Uri Singer (BB Film Productions), Fabio Golombek (fjproductions) Aimee Schoof and Isen Robbins (Intrinsic Value Films), Danny Abeckaser 
Language: English, Dutch subtitles - Duration: 98 min - Year: 2015 - Country: USA

Tom Postmes is professor of Social Psychology at the University of Groningen and University of Exeter. He seeks to understand how social interaction fosters the emergence and change of group norms, personal identity and social identity.  He received various  research awards for his work from the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), the Dutch National Science Foundation (NWO), the Economic and Social Research Council (UK) and National Science Foundation (USA) .

Experimenter will premiere in Dutch cinema’s on March 31.

Quotes
Experimenter offers a heady brew of theories about the essence of human nature, and a Peter Sarsgaard performance that catches Milgram in all his seductive, megalomaniacal brilliance. - Variety 
Strong performances from Peter Sarsgaard and Winona Ryder (...) It seems certain to be the deliberately fringe-dwelling auteur's most commercially successful film, and may be his most aesthetically satisfying one as well. - The Hollywood Reporter

Festivals & Awards 
Nomination: Gotham Awards 2015 - Gotham Independent Film Award- Best Actor- Peter Sarsgaard